Archive:The Big Write

What is the Big Write?

If you want to participate in the Big Write, please read this entire document!

This is another mass initiative, modeled loosely on The Big Speedydelete. Basically, we are going to sit down and write a lot of basic articles--but how we're going to do it is, perhaps, interesting.

Each Citizendium editor may and is encouraged to nominate 3-5 "high priority" topics (below) in his or her field. Articles on these topics shouldn't already exist. Other contributors then sign up to write a "credible start" on the topic. To be a "credible start," an article must be at least 750 words, accurate, unbiased, and well-written. As many people who want to sign up to write on any topic may do so, but everyone who does sign up to write is then obligated to do so (and soon, i.e., within a day or two of signing up). For each nominated topic, the editor is committed to reviewing and (if all goes well) blessing the new article as "a credible start." This is not an approval, but merely the editor's opinion that the article in its present form is on its way to being a good summation of the topic. The editor offers this blessing below.

This should not be much work for editors, but by making this small commitment, they can help "jump start" work in their areas. As for article writers, this is an excellent and interesting opportunity to get feedback on your work from professionals.

We would like to have nominations, if possible, from at least 20% of Citizendium editors, i.e., about 35 editors. More, of course, would be very welcome. That would entail the creation (or review) of 105 to 175 top priority articles. More importantly, it will help us get to know each other and to "jump start" many workgroups.

At some point--after article nominations drop off significantly--we will declare a close to nominations, so that we can declare a definite "end point" to the Big Write.

Editor instructions

There are four steps.

Step One. Choose three to five topics in your field(s) that are very high priority, and about which you have some specialized knowledge.

Step Two. List each topic below (under "The Topics") following this format:

Format:

Name of topic
:Reviewed by: ~~~
:Volunteer authors:
:A credible start?
:Blessed:

Note: place [[ and ]] on either side of the article name. Make your article title singular (so, prefer whale to whales) and lowercase titles when typically written lowercase (so, prefer global warming to Global Warming; but The Great Gatsby).

Also note: the ":" needs to be flush left; it indents a line. You can sign your name easily with three tildes (~~~), and your name and date by four tildes (~~~~).

For example:

epistemology

Reviewed by: Ed Itor

Volunteer authors: [authors place names here]

A credible start? Yes

Blessed: Ed Itor 19:00, 21 February 2007 (CST)

Please file your topics in alphabetical order, and for your own benefit, you might want to write down elsewhere the names of the topic you're managing.

Step Three. Offer feedback as necessary. It isn't part of your job to assign authors; they assign themselves. But it is your job to offer comments and suggestions for improvement, if necessary. The place to do this is on the so-called "talk" page. Therefore, if you have nominated an article titled whale, then you should go to Talk:whale. This can be found by navigating to the article and, from there, clicking on the "discussion" tab.

Step Four. "Bless" the article. Do this by writing ~~~~ after "A credible start?" (see the example above). This indicates that you believe the article is a "credible start" according to the criteria listed below.

If you have any questions, please write Larry at sanger@citizendium.org.

Instructions for article writers

If you have any trouble contacting an editor (if the editor has turned off "E-mail this user," and the editor does not seem to be monitoring the article's talk page), then send your message to constables@citizendium.org, and the constables will forward your message on to the editor.